Being Upfront With Front-of-Pack Labeling

KELLY FREDERICK

January 1, 2011

With the launch of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign in 2010 and the White House’s concern about obesity, America is more focused than ever on the impact diet has on health. An increasing number of shoppers are entering the supermarket looking for healthier food and beverage products to address specific disease states or to aide in their overall health and wellbeing. The goal of most front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition messages is to provide consumers with a method to select more nutritious foods.

Recognizing this opportunity to gain market share, food manufacturers are advertising their products’ health benefi…

Figure 2. Types of Front-of-Package Systems. From IOM Phase 1 report, 2010.

Figure 3. Working proposition for the GMA/FMI front-of-pack label, as presented to the IOM in Oct. 2010.

Figure 4. The percentage of participants who were able to correctly identify the amounts of sodium, saturated fat, and folate in cereal using four different front-of-pack labeling scenarios.